


HMS Ark

by alltoseek



Category: Aubrey-Maturin Series - Patrick O'Brian
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-08-27
Updated: 2012-08-27
Packaged: 2017-11-12 23:40:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,740
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/496963
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alltoseek/pseuds/alltoseek
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Once upon a time, a cheerful young sea-officer met a melancholic young naturalist. The resulting partnership was very propitious for the residents of a certain island.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a [prompt](http://perfect-duet.livejournal.com/366256.html?thread=4270256#t4270256) from [perfect_duet](http://perfect-duet.livejournal.com)'s [2010 Anything Goes meme](http://perfect-duet.livejournal.com/366256.html): _Stephen is so good with animals. I want some sort of Pied Piper scenario where they just follow him around everywhere. Bonus points if it's told/illustrated/whatevered as a fairy tale._

Once upon a time, there was a cheerful young sea-officer named Jack. He went to a concert, where a sour rude man jabbed him with his elbow. Jack left the concert very sad. But at home, he found out he had been made captain! Jack was happy again.

The next morning, Jack saw the sour rude man in the street, and apologised for making him (the man) be rude to him (Jack) at the concert. The sour man looked less sour and politely invited Jack to join him for hot chocolate. Jack learned that the man was a doctor named Stephen. They drank their chocolate and talked together for a long time.

Now, we see that:  
Jack was tall. Stephen was short.  
Jack had long golden locks. Stephen covered his sparse dark hair with a scruffy wig.  
Jack had bright blue eyes. Stephen had pale colorless eyes.  
Jack was big and burly. Stephen was scrawny and thin.

Jack was handsome, but did not know it.  
Stephen was ugly, but did not care (much).

Stephen was of illegitimate birth. Jack was heir to the lord of the manor.  
Stephen was Catholic. Jack was Church of England.

Stephen was Irish and Catalan. Jack was English.  
Stephen spoke many languages. Jack spoke English.

Stephen attended Trinity College in Dublin.  
Jack attended a dame's school in the village.

Stephen was intelligent and knowledgeable about many things, including physic, natural philosophy, art and literature, the classics, politics, and world cultures.  
Jack was intelligent and knowledgeable about all things nautical.

Stephen enjoyed naturalising and could identify many birds, plants, and animals by sight.  
Jack enjoyed eating, and could identify many puddings by sight.

Stephen was an honourable man who believed that devious methods may be used to defeat a vicious tyrant.  
Jack was an honourable man who could not lie his way out of a paper bag.

Stephen was often morose and melancholy.  
Jack was nearly always cheerful and happy.

Jack believed in the King, authority, and the navy hierarchy.  
Stephen believed in freedom and independence.

Jack was punctual. Stephen often lost track of time.  
Jack was neat in his dress. Stephen often lost track of his clothes.

Stephen was a physician. His job was to heal people.  
Jack was a naval officer. His job was to kill people.

Jack enjoyed music and played the violin.  
Stephen enjoyed music and played the violincello.

So naturally, they fell in love.

Now Jack was a creature of the sea, at home on any type of sea-going vessel. Jack often got into trouble on land, like calling out rude men at concerts, or sleeping with his superior officer's wife, or losing all his money to sharps and swindlers.

Stephen was a creature of the land, preferring solid ground beneath his feet and birds overhead, with every kind and type of creature creeping, crawling, slithering, hopping, jumping or walking about him. Stephen often got into trouble at sea, like falling down hatchways, or falling into the water and nearly drowning, or being late.

But since they were in love, Jack and Stephen decided always to be together, and they made this plan: Stephen would sail with Jack on his ships, and Jack would take him to visit strange new lands with wondrous new creatures no one had ever seen before. So for years and years Stephen sailed with Jack on each of his different ships to all different parts of the world. And Jack kept his promise, and took Stephen to each of the wondrous strange new lands they passed. Usually. Sometimes. Well, he did on occasion, subject to the requirements of the service, unless there was not a moment to lose. But still they were in love, and they were very happy together.


	2. The Island

One year Jack and Stephen were sailing in the East Indies, near Java. Stephen begged Jack for an opportunity to make collections from one of the many volcanic islands in the region.

Jack said, "But you did, long ago, in the horrible old _Leopard_ , remember?" Stephen remembered. He had made wonderful collections on Desolation Island in the Great South Sea (not the East Indies), and in New Holland (also not the East Indies), and when he had asked to visit an island at that time on their way to Java, Jack had said "But our holds are stuffed full already from Desolation Island, and your wombat from New Holland has eaten my hat. If you are willing to give up your giant squid, and the wombat..." But Stephen hadn't been willing, and anyway that entire collection was lost when _La Fleche_ went up in flames.

Jack said, "But you had that wonderful opportunity at the monastery on Pulo Prabang." Stephen said he had been allowed to make observations and notes, but not collections. And what little he had collected had been lost when the _Diane_ struck on the reef on their way home.

Jack said, "But then we were stranded on an island for weeks when the _Diane_ struck on the reef." Stephen said he had been obliged to kill nearly every living thing on the island, so they would have something to eat. And when they next sailed from Batavia to New Holland in the sweet _Nutmeg of Consolation_ , Jack stopped at only one island, where all Stephen could collect were two girl survivors of plague. Jack had then refused to stop even at the Great Barrier Reef.

Jack opened his mouth again, then closed it and stalked off. The next day he reluctantly ordered a stop at the next large volcanic island they saw. Reluctant, because they did not need water, food, or anti-scorbutics, and Jack hated losing a minute of sailing for no naval purpose. However, he hated sailing with a miserable resentful prone-to-prescribe-nasty-physic Stephen even more, so he stopped.

In the boat that would take him to the island Stephen loaded his gun and shot, his nets and cages. But when he stepped ashore, he found he did not need to shoot or use even a box. All the mobile creatures of the island were eager to follow him. As he wandered along and up the side of the volcano mountain, a train of giant lizards, small rodents, and snakes of various sizes crawled, scurried, and slithered behind him. Above and around him flew an entire aviary of lorikeets, parrots, flycatchers, sunbirds, warblers, and many others. He himself was covered in innumerable insects - butterflies, ants, beetles ("Sir Joseph will be ecstatic!"), centipedes, flies and bugs of all descriptions, and spiders, and worms too. Primates hooted and swung in the trees alongside him. Stephen made his way back to the boat, confused but deliriously happy.

The men of the boat were not happy. They were horrified. They tried to stay as far from the doctor as they could, but it hardly mattered, for as soon as Stephen set foot in the boat all the creatures loaded in with him. The giant lizards calmly climbed aboard, the small rodents found nooks and nests in discrete corners, the snakes wrapped themselves about the oars. The primates clung to the men and sat on the stretchers. Smaller creatures rode over on the backs of the larger creatures, if they could not get on Stephen himself. Soon every available spot, and many that were not, was occupied by a (former) inhabitant of the island.

At the ship Jack took one look at the boat and Stephen, hardly able to see the men for the creatures, and nearly refused permission to board. However, all the creatures that could fly already had, and were perched about the rigging and the rails. Anything that could cling to the side was busy crawling up, and the monkeys nimbly swung aboard. The men had climbed aboard as soon as the boat neared the side, not even waiting for the boatkeeper to secure it. Soon Stephen was left nearly alone, but for a couple of giant lizards, persistently trying to mount the side (scratching the paintwork as they did so, horrifying the first officer, who cursed them and damned their eyes all to no effect).

Jack looked at the chaos on board the ship (desperately ignoring the snakes), then to the loneness that was Stephen, and had an idea. "Stephen, do you suppose that if you went back to the island, would the animals follow you back?" Stephen could certainly not say, but supposed they might. As soon as some men could be persuaded back into the boat (the braver and more intelligent ones, who realised that there were now fewer creepy-crawlies on the boat than in the ship), Stephen was taken back to the island.

The result was quite pleasing to Stephen, and miserable for everyone else. None of the creatures left the ship to go back with Stephen, and once at the island Stephen fell out of the boat in his hurry to get back to the island. He out-ran the men of the boat, who would not go far from the beach, and was soon wandering happily along the volcano's side, again collecting a train of followers.

On returning to the ship, he asked Jack if he could try a third time. Jack said, "No, absolutely not, no more!" When the bosun's chair was lowered for Stephen, he first put the giant lizards in it.

On board the ship, the men gave Stephen all the nets, cages, and empty boxes he had planned to use for collecting. One by one, or two by two, Stephen gently led, coaxed, or placed the creatures in a suitable habitat. With the aid of the carpenter and his anxious mates, there was soon a place for every creature.

Now the snakes were secured, and Jack was happy. Now the ship more closely resembled a private floating island filled with wondrous strange creatures, and Stephen was happy. Eventually the ship reached home, and the crew were happy.

Some time later, a great cloud of smoke and dust covered the whole Earth. Crops failed in many lands that summer from such weak sunlight. Many rumours abounded as to the cause, but Stephen learnt from knowledgeable men that an enormous volcano had erupted and spewed forth the massive cloud. 

Stephen could picture the devastation around such a volcano, having been near (a much smaller) one himself once, and asked where the volcano was that erupted? 

The knowledgeable men replied, an island in the East Indies, near Java.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora in the Dutch East Indies (Indonesia) contributed to the 1816 ["Year Without a Summer"](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Year_Without_a_Summer) in parts of North America and Europe.


End file.
